I have attempted to recreate this axe inventory image as an inventory image of the BG standard.

To do so, I took Battle Axe +2 to serve as both most fitting donor and the reference to said BG standard.

I changed this and that: made blade broader, back spike stumpier, top spike shorter, shaft of wood, hilt of metal -

Formally, the result conveys original axe within BG environment to the letter. However, at the same time it looks rather bland, boring and not so much BGish. What have I missed, what could be improved while keeping true all the characteristics of the original axe?

I would say add a bit more contrast so the light parts are lighter. Note how the original has the blade edge rather whitish as if light were glinting off it. Conversely, the dark bits can be a bit darker, but don't go so dark that it blends into the (usually dark brown) background.

Glad to see you Miloch and thanks for the advise That one up there is an outdated pic by now, but when working on improving it in the passed time I found myself doing so somewhat along the same lines as your ideas, so I'm glad to know I chose the right path

If you really really really want to have a proper Baldur's Gate item to be pseudo-photo-realistic then you must create a 3D model of your axe (does not need to be 100% perfect due to the small icon size), (try sketch up if you ~suck at 3D modelling, it is made easy to use) and use your art work thus as a texture, get a light on the 3D model with your axe texture and take a screen shot of it. Then maybe go to lunapic.com and adjust the brightness and contrast a bit (or not). Then make a copy of your 3D axe B.A.M. that fits in a 64x64 pixel image and make a shadow version (all black profile) for the shadow and copy paste (with transparency) your Battle Axe image over top of the shadow you just made. Make the shadow 3-4 pixels lower and 5-8(~7) pixels to the side to get a nice shadow effect. Another tip is that if you are good with perspective and angles you can use real life photographs of real life items for your item B.A.M.s.(don't mess up your angles or you will fail).

I found eventually that 2d with a touch of pixel art suits me better at mimicking vanilla art style, but your way might be good for someone as well. Your sword looks like something that could have been in vanilla.

That is the intention, Bioware 1998 - 1999 item quality plus. I bring passion to the table of these kind of work. I do better item icons than Beamdog and I have yet to meet someone in the creative community who can match my quality of work regarding item B.A.M.s and item lore for Baldur's Gate.

That is the intention, Bioware 1998 - 1999 item quality plus. I bring passion to the table of these kind of work. I do better item icons than Beamdog and I have yet to meet someone in the creative community who can match my quality of work regarding item B.A.M.s and item lore for Baldur's Gate.

That is the intention, Bioware 1998 - 1999 item quality plus. I bring passion to the table of these kind of work. I do better item icons than Beamdog and I have yet to meet someone in the creative community who can match my quality of work regarding item B.A.M.s and item lore for Baldur's Gate.

Ok now you have gone too far and ruined it

How so? There is never such a thing as too high of quality. I have a high standard of quality just look at this ring and helm I created for a play through (that I almost never ended up sharing).

Ring of Dispossession 'Ring of the Last Ruamathari Prince'

Ring of Dispossession ''Ring of the Last Ruamathari Prince' - Item Description:

This ancient heavily enchanted immaculate ruby studded golden ring once belonged to none other than that of the last Ruamathari prince and last heir to the now fallen Raumathar Empire. This magical ring was gifted to the Raumathari prince by the royal smiths located in the now ruined castle of Winterkeep on prince's fifteenth name day. This regal ring's purpose is said to be of that of a warding against any ill-begotten curses laid upon the prince on his wedding day come his eighteenth name day. Most all of the royal records of the ancient fallen empire of Raumathar are now destroyed along with their once great empire in war known as Great Conflagration of -160 DR. Although there is one very old surviving insightful document on this matter located within the archives of the Rashemen capital city of Immilmar that was transcribed from an ancient now lost Ruamathari manuscript that states that there was great unease within the Ruamathari royal court upon the their prince's choice of his controversial bride to be. Little else has been saved over the last nearly two thousand years of this controversial marriage to be and even whom the bride in question was to be has been lost to the ebb and flow of history. The extent of the historical record degradation is so severe that even the very assured name of last Raumathari prince is too lost. As too his true linage and that of his parents having been lost also within the annals of time paramount. In spite of these lost records what can be discerned is that the Raumathari royal family gave their prince and heir to their ill fated empire this very gem studded ring inlaidened with the finest of rubies and cast of the purest of gold in all of the Raumathar empire. This exquisite jeweled loop was to be worn on the prince's right hand as a safeguard in case of any treachery that should befall their young prince upon donning his wedding band wrought from within his supposed bride's land that time forgot. It is rumoured that the bride was to receive her marriage ring from the prince's family although little knowledge survives of the Raumathari marriage customs to make certain of this claim. The marriage of the prince and the time forgotten bride never came to be for upon the prince's seventieth name day a great war broke out with the empire of Raumathar and the empire of Narfell within the ensuing decade long war that came to be know as the Great Conflagration that subsequently brought about the ruination both empires within its wake. It is known that upon the ninth year of the epic scaled war named the Great Conflagration that the last Raumathari prince was struck down in his prime by a warrior mage princess of the empire of Narfell whilst dueling the said Nar warrior mage princess in single combat for at a minimum of three hours. The brutal duel is sung in many old traditional bard songs of the Nar people that tell of a truly awe striking violence that completely obliterated a small town within the struggle for life and death as it pitched back and forth. Such a historical event has been immortalized by the Nars and they sing first of a magical assault that tore up the lands and razed a town to ruins until finally the ashes painted the warrior wizards grey with soot as both party's magical energies had been utterly expended unto each other and the lands that ached under their awful power. Then with many variants of the Nars bard's song then come to conflict herein with some versions sung secondly that forthtell that the royal duel was over rather quickly after the Raumathari prince's magic had been depleted from himself. Intriguingly their exists other more extended variants of this bard song that are sung out side of the Nar lands and of which can usually be found sung within the lands of Thay and Rashemen. These other more long winded iterations of the Nar's bard song tell of a ravaging melee of the two royal combatants spilling each other's blue blood upon the field of battle until the noble prince was finally rent asunder. As a true champion of his empire the prince's final conflict of battle was in the name of his kingdom and for defending what was left of his crumbling empire. Yet the entirety of Raumathari prince's stoic struggle and battle spirit was all for naught after the field of battle burned black and the small town raised to the ground unto fire and ash. For with a great might from the Nar Princess that she smote down upon the battle-worn prince as she cast downward her edge of a flaming blade that was rent through the prince's guard and continued down through to his right shoulder and unto his spine nearest from his hips. The song herein is most always sung in a fever pitch as where the lyric's details all share a common thread in that they proclaim that magical flames of the warrior wizard princess's blade then proceeded to set ablaze to the Raumathari prince's spell and blade battered combat wear. The bards then usually slow the pace of the song for dramatic effect and slowly raise the tempo up and up as they sing of prince's armour so heavily enchanted from the late Raumathari emperor so worried of his son's safety that as the magical flames engulfed the nearly halved prince that his armour then exploded in a great inferno upon the sudden destruction of their wards. It is said that the prince was left to burn in his own armour until his body was charred black. The bards of Rashemen usually scoff at and crack belittling jokes of the Nar bards with great effect within the Rashemen Taverns. The humorous proclamations of the Rashemen bards usual hinge around the Nar bards leaving out the details of the explosion of the the prince's armour death wards that mortally wounded his foe. With some of the bards boasting that the explosion was so devastating to the Nar princess that in spite of the royal Nar priests' most powerful spells of faith laid forth upon their devastated princess that they could not save her and she too later perished from that day when she picked a duel with the last prince and heir of the then imploding Raumathar empire. Upon the death of the last prince of the empire of Raumathar the tides of war shifted and both sides would come to be consumed by their own blood lust as their once wondrous empires too became victims in their great war. It is rumoured that this ring was slipped off of the prince's charred right hand by the captain of the Raumathari royal guard to give back to what was left of the Raumathari royal family after the terrible war. Although that plan for this ring too never came to fruition for the then captain of the Raumathari royal guard would later hear a fortnight after his prince's death from within a front line Raumathari war camp that the remaining Raumathari royal family had all been slaughtered just half a week prior. It is believed that the royal guard and counter spies of the Raumathar empire that had been tasked to ward the last surviving Raumathari of royal blood had failed their duty. It is all but nigh completely believed that the true events that extinguished the Raumathar royal line was that the royal family was snuffed out of existence in one night by a swarm of summoned fire elementals that laid a successful siege to a far-flung stronghold of the then beleaguered Raumathar empire. The castle became ravaged by the fires spread by the intruding far summoned fire elementals to such a degree that the entire keep collapsed in onto itself after nearly all of the keep's wooden support pillars were all but burnt away by the inferno set ablaze within the keep's lower levels. Thus from within the stronghold's collapse all of those whom that were not slaughtered outright were trapped within the burning rubble left to their fates to presumably burn alive. The captain of the Raumathari royal guard was said to have worn this golden ring in the final weeks of his long and bloody campaign against the battered Narfell empire where he still held true to his resolve and the oaths that bound him to protect what little was left of his once proud, prosperous and strong empire. This same captain of the Raumathari royal guard would go on to be promoted and hold the rank of High General of the Raumathari Empire and to take charge of the last surviving contingent of Raumathari Battle Mages of his now all but defeated army mere weeks before the end of both the great war and the empires of Narfell and Raumathar. It is said that upon the last battle of the Great Conflagration that the Raumathari High General devised a great illusion of each man and woman who bore arms and that the he had also ordered summoned beings to fight their opposing forces while what was left of his battered army fled to what is now known as lands of Rashemen to save what little legacy that was left of the now defeated Raumathar empire. Tragically it is believed by most all leading scholars and historians of the Raumathari Empire that the Raumathari High General bore no children and died of alcoholism nearly twenty years later after saving the last of his empire's greatest soldiers. Yet the legacy of the late Ruamathari High General's actions live on and can still be found immortalized as what would now become to be known as the Ruamathari Battle Mages that still defiantly survive to this day as the late Raumathari High General's living legacy of his heroic service to the Raumathari empire.

STATISTICS:

Special Abilities:
- Once per day cast remove curse upon the ring's wearer

This magical near entirely gold plated helm is of incredible strength considering that it is smithed from a bronze and iron alloy that most all venerable smiths of the common day would shy away from. It is readily believed by most of the armour smithing profession that such a mixture of metals to be used as a safeguard against cranial impact given the softer nature of bronze is not advisable for all but ceremonial purposes. Alas this helm provides the strength necessary to shield the wearer from all but the most determined of blows struck upon the skull. Given the unexpected metallurgic nature of such a helm one might assume that magic were at play for such a solid composition yet surprisingly no such magic is used to strengthen helm's uncommon alloy other than to prevent the decorative gold plating of the helm's exterior from scratching off. Upon further divination it is found that this helm heralds from the lands of the old empire of Unther within the East of Faerûn. Although as peculiar as the Unther smiths' metal trickery of this helm is, most will agree that it still fails to intrigue to the same manner as that of the blessing gifted upon this helm by none other than the God-King of Unther himself known as Gilgeam. This helm bears the mark of an elite legion of the Unther empire and more specifically the rather difficult to decipher Untheric runes that proclaim the following: "Awarded from the God-King Gilgeam himself as gratitude towards the merits of outstanding discipline and superior command." It is believed that such a blessed helm will only be given to the most stoic and devastating of elite legionaries of the legions of Unther. Additionally it is also believed that these enchanted varieties of helm from within the old empire of Unther are also known as 'The Visage of Gilgeam'. It is told that such helms are given as promotions to the most deadly and subsequently elite of Unther legionaries as a safeguards to keep them from turning on their own soldiers in case of a berserking curse were to be laid upon them by an opposing force. It is rumoured that Gilgeam 'Father of Victory' was deeply embarrassed when one of his most prized elite legions was all but wiped out by a group of Mulhorand spell casters. To put salt in Gilgeam's wound, his elite legion was struck down by their own blades after a clever band of Mulhorand spell casters broke the ranks of the elite legion nicknamed 'Gilgeam's Pride' with a series of berserking curses while being completely unscathed by the legion in the process. The curses were later found out by a interrogated Mulhorand priest to have been laid on the legion's own swords the night before they slew themselves while the legionaries were distracted by prostitutes hired by the Mulhorand spell casters. As to how such a prized and treasured item from both within and abroad of Unther found its way into your possession is unknown. Although one may happen a guess that if such an item was stolen from its owner then there would likely be those incentivized by large amounts gold and other such likely rewards to search for the helm's unmistakable golden exterior and deep red plume. Then again one may come across a rich collector avid to purchase the prized helm to further expand their collection of rare and highly sought after elite Unther legionnaire equipment. It is said that such items as these are relics of an older and more grander time of the Unther empire and thus fetch a very high price from private collectors of the like. With anyway that one looks at this helm, one can be certain of at least of one thing and that is if one were to don this helm in the lands of Unther within the gaze of many a Unther legion - it would surely be removed in quick succession from one's shoulders along with one's own head.

There is never such a thing as too high of quality. I have a high standard of quality just look at this ring and helm...

Relax man, this is not a pitch at the board meeting. What I meant is that saying about oneself "I'm the best around", even if it were true, of which I'm far from being in agreement with in this case, is a kind of meh.

There is never such a thing as too high of quality. I have a high standard of quality just look at this ring and helm...

Relax man, this is not a pitch at the board meeting. What I meant is that saying about oneself "I'm the best around", even if it were true, of which I'm far from being in agreement with in this case, is a kind of meh.

True but that is the nature of a challenge. In truth being the 'best' is mostly just a matter of popular perspective. So until I find someone who is also 'the best' I will remain 'the best'. It is kind of a challenge; like how dueling works. In many ways I wish I had a person to 'duel' with but alas without competition I am 'the best' ;P.